I imagine a 50 hp gocart would have smoked the Harley. The smaller, the lighter, the faster off the line. I trust the Honda would have won over distance or for top speed.

I think it has more to do with the torque curves of the two engines, and perhaps the lower centre of gravity and gearing ratios. I'd expect the rat bike to do fairly well against a gokart actually... at least over the same distance

The Honda should certainly have smoked him over a slightly longer distance and would win fairly easily on top speed, even if 180hp might be a slight exaggeration.

Also, like a rail dragster, his extended forks allows for acceleration torque beyond the point the CBR would flip over on it's back. The Harley has almost twice the wheel base.

Give the CBR a wheelie bar and grandpa would be looking at tail lights the whole trip.

Part of it has to do with the old guy's back tire. He's smokes it to warm the rubber and make it more sticky.

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I think everyone kind of has the right idea. The honda doesn't start making it's power until about 8,000 rpm. (My S1000RR feels asleep until 6000) You have to be riding like you stole it, and it takes more than the 2 seconds that the race lasted to get up to those revs. The honda rider seemed rather timid / inexperienced, and hildo really seemed to know his stuff. Also, those big v-twins make loads of power off the line.

He also has a good method; he pulls away and moves over in front of the CBR to stop it getting past. He only needs to pull away quicker - easily done with his extended wheel base and (probably) lower gearing - and win the first 20 yards.

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